Early Thursday morning a construction worker was placing concrete in a driveway in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. The piece of equipment the construction worker had been utilizing was a skid-loader. A skid-loader is a small engine powered machine often used to lift mass quantities and for digging. Just before this construction site accident, another worker had noticed a gasoline scent protruding from the skid-loader. Naturally, that worker attempted to take the lid off of the gasoline tank only to allow an excessive amount of gasoline to drench the victim. Shortly thereafter, the construction company continued work on that project. However, the gasoline soaked construction worker was apparently tasked to operate the skid-loader. According to local authorities, an unknown ignition source lit the gasoline soaked construction victim while he was using the loader. Nearly 20% of his body suffered significant burns. He was flown to a local hospital for further treatment.

It is very important to note that on just about every construction project, a job site supervisor is on the premises and tasked to oversee the successful and safe completion of a project. The previously mentioned tragedy that occurred in Cumberland County appears to be an avoidable accident. When a situation arises on the construction site that may possibly lead to injury or death of an employee, it is the responsibility of the supervisor to eliminate any and all dangerous conditions.

Now, using the above situation involving the construction burn victim as an example, under no circumstances should the job site supervisor have allowed that worker to continue working after being doused with gasoline. When using a piece of mechanical equipment such as a skid-loader, it is only a matter of time before some type of ignition source comes into contact with highly flammable gasoline soaked clothing. This type of careless and reckless supervision is the reason why our construction workers are constantly falling victim to construction site tragedies.